The ExChristian.Net blog exists for the express purpose of encouraging those who have decided to leave Christianity behind. This area contains news items sent in between January 2001 and February 2010. To view recent posts, click on the "Home" link.

ARCHIVES:

A former Rice Lake pastor is charged with raping a 17-year-old boy 20 years ago.Now, that victim is speaking out.

Doug Guillen says he struggled for years with drug and alcohol abuse before putting a gun to his head. He says before he could pull the trigger, he says he realized it's not his fault.

It was a child that saved Doug Guillen from himself.

"I wanted to shoot myself but I cant, I have a little girl. I'll be damned if I'm going to shoot myself and he's still out there," Guillen says.

Guillen, who used to live in Rice Lake, now calls Fort Lauderdale, Florida home. He has a wife and 16-year-old daughter.Guillen was just 17, when he says his pastor raped him.

The man charged with raping him and forcing him to perform sexual acts also now live in Florida. But, in the summer of 1987 their paths crossed in Wisconsin.

"I think when I see him in court it's going to make me feel a lot better," Guillen says.

56-year-old Angel Toro was a pastor at First United Methodist Church.Investigators say he recruited Guillen to help fix a fence at the church. He bought him beer and cigarettes, then took advantage of him. Guillen says he can't wait to face Toro in court.

"I want you guys to get the expression on his face when he sees me. I'm not the same little 112 pound boy anymore, it's a totally different ballgame now,” he says. “I don't want his money. I want his life and that's what I'm going to tell the judge. I don't want a cent from him. That man made his money, selling tickets to heaven and none of them going to heaven because Satan sold them the tickets.”

Toro is scheduled to be in Barron County Court for his initial appearance on April 25.

Authorities said he picked up the boy to work at the church, and bought him beer.

Toro left Wisconsin two years later and because of that, he could not escape prosecution under the statute of limitations.

He was given ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ in 1997, and was praised for growing a Florida congregation from 30 members to 500.

Later, he headed the Local Ministries Board of the national church, and was on its 90-member executive council.

Toro was on leave since January, and resigned from all his church positions. Peter Isley of the Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests praised the new charges. He said Toro is the 15th clergy member returned to Wisconsin in the last five years for alleged child molestation.link

Another related article:

Wisconsin authorities have filed sexual assault charges against a local pastor, the Rev. Angel Toro, who resigned from Chapel on the Hill United Church of Christ a few days ago.

Toro, 56, is accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy in 1987, when he was a minister with the United Methodist Church in Wisconsin.

Chris Fitzgerald, a detective with the Rice Lake Police Department in Wisconsin, said investigations into the allegations began in late 2005.

The complaint alleges that Toro assaulted the teenager twice at First United Methodist Church in Rice Lake, about two hours from Minneapolis.

Toro has been charged with four counts of sexual assault and two counts of child enticement. Reached on his cell phone, Toro said his lawyers had advised him not to comment.

Bruce Denson, his attorney, said Toro is devastated. "It's a false allegation," he said.

Douglas Guillen, 37, says he is the victim. Times policy generally is to withhold the names of victims of sex crimes. In this case, Guillen consented to being identified.

The construction worker, who lives in Broward County, said he met Toro when the minister hired him to do odd jobs.

In 1997, Toro left the Methodist church and became a United Church of Christ minister and Chapel on the Hill's pastor.

The Rev. Jack Richards of the United Church of Christ Florida Conference said the denomination learned of a Pinellas investigation of Toro on Jan. 22. Toro resigned from Chapel on the Hill and the denomination March 19.

Richards said the denomination's investigation found no wrongdoing locally. The Pinellas Sheriff's Office has closed its investigation.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show that police arrested Toro for indecent exposure in 1994. He pleaded no contest.link